402 SNAKES. 



Consigned to their cage, how I hovered about those 

 ' strange - toothed * Colubers that long midsummer day! 

 How I wished they would bring their heads close to the glass 

 and yawn the widest of yawns, and how I waited for the 

 ophiological dentist to come and exhibit their ' fangs ! ' for 

 the donor of these valuable acquisitions had been devoting 

 himself to the discovery of antitoxics, and was supposed 

 to be snake-proof, and to do what he pleased with both 

 venomous and non-venomous kinds. But the long mid- 

 summer day waxed on, and I gazed at the Xenodon till I 

 knew every mark of his leaf-like pattern ; and the day 

 began to wane, and my hopes of seeing the wonderful teeth 

 beo-an to wane also. And I felt I had a sort of claim 

 upon this Xenodo7t, the 'Jarraracca' about which we had 

 corresponded. 



I had relied so much on having the pseudo-fangs scientifi- 

 cally displayed to me, that when the visitors were depart- 

 ing and the keeper was at liberty, I told him about these 

 strange teeth which I was so anxious to see, and at last 

 persuaded him to open Xcjiodons mouth for me, and to 

 hold it open (which operation the keepers understand very 

 well) while I made the dental examination myself 



After all there was nothing in the shape of a fang to be 

 seen ! 



' Posterior tooth long, compressed ' ! ' Last tooth very 

 long, compressed, ensiform ' ! and so on, said the authorities ; 

 but nothing of the kind was here ! I could see to its very 

 throat, and the rows of tiny palate teeth and the four rows 

 of jaw teeth, all exceedingly small, but never a fang. So I 

 stared and wondered, and then in my bewildered amazement 



